When you compare the most successful operations in any industry, a handful of characteristics and traits they share begin to stand out. As I interviewed people and worked on the GROW Executive Report this past month, I found the same to be true.
Greenhouse leaders hit on several common themes that prove business success doesn’t happen by accident. I’ve summed these themes up into the “Six Be’s of Business Success,” but I hope you’ll dig into the GROW Executive Report to find even more inspiration and ideas to help you run a successful greenhouse business.
- Be different from your competitors. Whether it’s figuring out a way to decommoditize a commodity crop, bringing something new to the market, offering a new program, or trying something out of the ordinary, start to reap the unexpected benefits of doing the unexpected. Find a way to stand out from those around you. It will help you stay relevant and give you more leverage in the long run to better command the prices you want for your products and services.
- Be knowledgeable about your present and future customers. It’s easier to engage your customers when you know what motivates them and what gets them excited. That goes for the retailers you work with as well as the end consumers. When you know what your customers’ needs are, you know better how to meet those needs and exceed their expectations.
- Be tracking everything about your business. You don’t know what works and what doesn’t if you don’t track items such as costs, production productivity, and sales figures. When you don’t track, you can’t identify where you are inefficient. It follows that if you don’t know where you are inefficient, you don’t know where to improve. Going back to a common business maxim — you can’t manage what you can’t measure. You can’t measure what you don’t track.
- Be cost-conscious. This goes along with tracking. You need to know what you spend, what it costs you to produce your crops, and what your labor expenses are, for starters. You also need to keep track of your costs in relation to your sales and adjust when necessary. Don’t spend unnecessarily on the latest and greatest equipment before determining if you need it and its return on investment. Identify areas where you can do better with your costs and work to improve them.
- Be strategic. A wise person once said if you don’t start with the end in mind, you’ll cross someone else’s finish line. Don’t lose sight of your long-term goals. When distractions or upsets occur, and it’s a given they will, fix your sights on the long-term view to maintain your focus and keep from getting sidetracked permanently by temporary side trips.
- Be focused on what you do best. Concentrate on your specific area of expertise. Whether it is product development, operations, marketing, finance, or a particular crop category you are best at — own it in a big way. There is a second facet to being focused. Don’t spread yourself too thin with, for example, too many projects or trying to implement too many solutions at one time to solve a problem. Multitasking can be destructive at times because it divides your attention, shifting the focus away from the things that matter the most.
Business success doesn’t happen by accident; it’s intentional.
My unofficial addition to this list is “Be intentional.” Doing things on purpose propels you toward success that won’t happen any other way. Happy Growing!
